A Look At Today’s Most Important Races

Today, voters across the country are casting ballots in several important races and voting on several hotly-contested ballot measures. Here are a few of the most important things to be watching tonight when returns start to roll in.

Maine Voter Law: Maine voters have long been able to register to vote on Election Day itself; however, Maine’s new Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage (R) and its GOP legislature did their part in the GOP’s War on Voting by repealing same-day registration (despite the fact that LePage and many of the legislators who voted for the restrictive law had themselves registered to vote using same-day registration). Mainers took things into their own hands, and today they will vote to repeal the GOP’s anti-voting law and reinstate same day registration. As with other races we’re following today, a conservative group dumped in $250,000 in secret money in the waning days of the election to defeat the repeal effort while others have turned to offensive and inflammatory tactics. Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Virginia State Senate: Republicans control the House of Delegates and governorship in Virginia, while Democrats currently control the state Senate. Republicans will need to pick up three seats to gain control of the chamber. While the recent redistricting in Virginia is believed to be somewhat favorable to Senate Democrats, many of the races are too close to call. Unified control by Republicans could unleash a tidal wave of conservative legislation, including the kind of restrictive voting laws we’ve seen in GOP-controlled states across the country. Polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

Wake County School Board: Most school boards races are sleepy affairs, but not so in Wake County, North Carolina. Last year, Art Pope, a wealthy financier of right-wing causes and board member of the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity front group, spent heavily in Wake County schools elections in order to elect board members who would end the district’s racial integration program. (Pope also spent heavily in the successful effort to flip North Carolina’s state legislature into Republican hands, helping to ensure Republican gains in congressional redistricting.) This year, the Wake County School Board elections have become pitched battles, with some candidates spending hundreds of thousands of dollars — sums previously unheard of in such elections. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.